For Anthony Brown, the Hobby-Lobby decision seemed like manna from Heaven ("Corporations trump people," June 30). Unable to run on Maryland's economy, jobs growth, tax rates, the health exchange rollout, his competence as an executive or the other issues central to this election, Mr. Brown and his special interest defenders are instead trying to frighten women for his own political gain. In his calculation, this is easier than, say, addressing the tens of thousands of women who have lost their jobs during his administration and, along with it, their employer-sponsored health insurance and the family planning and women's health services it covered.

It's time to clear the air and cut through the political rhetoric. The Hobby Lobby decision does nothing to change my belief that all women in Maryland should have access to the birth control of their choice; this is my position as a lifelong Marylander, a business owner, a candidate, a husband and a father of three grown women, and it will be the policy of my administration should I be honored to become the next governor.

Improving the lives of women and increasing access to health services requires that we turn our economy around and put women back to work; it requires that we fix our broken budget and restore the millions Gov. Martin O'Malley and Mr. Brown cut from breast and cervical cancer research and screening and rehire the hundreds of professionals who were providing these services. And while my opponent cashes check after check from trial lawyers, the number of OB-GYNs in our state continues to drop, in fact three counties in Maryland lack a single OB-GYN practitioner, and 11 counties now have fewer than two.

Over the next few months, my hope is that the focus of this pivotal election will be on the serious economic issues that impact every citizen of our state and not just the narrow divisive ones over which the next governor will have little control.

I, for one, am fed up with status quo politics as usual in this state that puts a higher value on manufactured political battles than on getting to work solving the serious issues that face our state. This past week reflects this better than any other. That's why I decided to run for governor, to give the people a real clear choice: More of the same tired political posturing from Anthony Brown or a change in leadership that focuses on putting Maryland back to work.

A recent exchange within your opinion pages debated the benefit of over-the-counter access to oral contraceptives, with a letter to the editor ("Sun wrong on OTC birth control," Sept. 16) citing the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists as being supportive of recent proposals from...

The front-page Sun article "School birth control debated" (June 7) deserved the big headline. It is time for everyone to review the present and not the past. Thirty years ago, we would not have blinked an eye: Our parents would have said no to birth control; case closed. That was then, the good...

It is the parents' job to teach their children right from wrong. At the very least, schools should not be making the parents' job harder ("Amid teen pregnancy decline, debate renewed about birth control in schools," June 6).

The Founders wisely gave us the First Amendment so that the followers of one faith could not force others to live their lives according to that faith. They had already seen how religion could be the basis for so much suffering. The case of the Little Sisters of the Poor and the Affordable Care...

As two organizations committed to increasing access to reproductive health care services for all Marylanders, we were glad to see The Sun highlight the availability of contraceptives in school-based health clinics ("Amid teen pregnancy decline, debate renewed about birth control in schools," June...

President Barack Obama's federal government has scored another big win in its war on religion in the United States, which used to be a nation under God ("Federal court rules against Little Sisters of the Poor," July 15). We should be ashamed of our court system as well as this "government" pledged...

This letter is in response to Susan Reimer's column about the GOP's attitude about birth control ("On birth control, young Republicans get it," April 15). I think Ms. Reimer's opinion is very narrow-minded. While I agree that young people often have premarital sex with no desire to procreate, I...

Readers Diana Philip and Spencer Hall were right to call out City Councilman Carl Stokes for his characterization of teen access to contraceptives as "a racist policy targeting African-American youth" ("Teens have a right to birth control," June 11).